Brasilia — Forest fires in Brazil They have devastated an area the size of Switzerlanda level of destruction that will take decades to recover, if ever, according to a new satellite assessment.
The extent of forest that has been lost or degraded was revealed when the smoke that blanketed the country cleared, thanks to rains that may end the worst drought Brazil has ever recorded.
“The data is exceptionally alarming. “It is a very abrupt increase.”Ane Alencar, scientific director of the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), a Brazilian nonprofit, told The Associated Press.
The area that burned between January and mid-October 2024 represents an 846% increase over the same period in 2023. It is five times more extensive than the forest fires of 2019, when, during the government of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, the wanton destruction of the Amazon made headlines around the world.
The estimate comes from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE), which tracks the official deforestation rate in that country.
This increase in fires occurs a year before the Amazonian city of Belem hosts the Conference of United Nations about him Climate ChangeCOP30. The level of destruction makes Brazilian officials and experts suspect that criminals are using climate change for their benefit.
Deforestation in the Amazon usually starts with chainsaws. Wet fallen trees are left on the ground until they are dry enough to set on fire. They are not even used for their wood.
Now that the forest is drying out due to drought, offenders seeking to create more pasture for livestock could skip the costly and labor-intensive step of cutting down trees: a few gallons of gasoline and a lighter are enough to start a fire.
“Drought played an important role in fueling the spread, but fire has also become a weapon,” Alencar said.
“Forest resilience to severe drought is proving to be very low”explained André Lima, extraordinary secretary of Deforestation Control and Territorial Environmental Planning at the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, to the AP in an interview in Brasilia. “You don’t need 1 million people to set fires to cause disaster. A thousand can do it. “We recorded 500 large fires, all of them started with a match”.
Driven by human-induced climate change and the meteorological phenomenon of The Childthe world’s largest basin is reeling after two years of severe drought. Many rivers dropped to record lows in 2023, then broke those records again in 2024. Endangered fish and river dolphins have died in waters that are too warm for them. Hundreds of riverside communities have been stranded without river transportation.
And then the flames came. In September, forest fires spread across the region and doubled the area that had burned so far this year. With just over two months left until the end of 2024, it is already the largest area burned since the government began using its current methodology a decade ago.
The estimate of forest loss comes as delegates from around the world gather in the Colombian city of Cali for COP16, focused on preserving biodiversity.
The hypothesis that criminals take advantage of climate change requires further study, Lima said. But there is some evidence of this. One clue is that the conservation area that has suffered the most damage is the Jamanxim National Forest. Dozens of land grabbers illegally raise cattle there, hoping their operations will be legalized.
It is near the city of Novo Progresso, a hotbed of deforestation where Bolsonaro, who favors economic development over forest preservation, received 83% of the vote in his failed bid for re-election in 2022.
Fires have devastated 733 square miles of Jamanxim this yearmainly in September, an increase of 700% compared to 2023, according to MapBiomas, a network of non-governmental organizations that monitors land use.
The unprecedented increase in fires has led Brazil’s government to consider mandating the reforestation of all burned areas—a deterrent to land grabbers hoping to convert public forest into private pastures of their own.
Lima thinks local and state governments should also act, since most fires start on rural private properties, which are their jurisdiction.
“We need structural changes in policies to address climate change,” he stressed.
The increase in forest fires in the Amazon is part of a global trend and worsens climate change. A recent study published in the scientific journal Science estimated that carbon emissions from forest fires increased by 60% between 2001 and 2023. Researchers warned that forests, and all the carbon they store, are increasingly vulnerable to fires .
Unlike wildfires in North America, where flames sometimes reach the treetops and spread from there, in the Amazon rainforest the fire spreads primarily through leaves on the ground, causing less damage. INPE, the deforestation watchdog, counts these areas as fire scars, not deforestation.
That’s why, Despite increasing fires, this year’s deforestation rate appears to slow under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silvaand could end 2024 with a 60% reduction compared to the Bolsonaro years. This shows how deforestation is just one of several metrics—one that does not provide a complete picture of forest damage in a given year.
“In areas where the fire was very intense, the forest can completely collapse,” Claudio Almeida, a senior INPE official, reported to the AP. “Even regions where the fire was not as intense are now severely degraded and fragile. Another season of intense drought and fires could lead to the destruction of forests.”